Oppo terminates company worker for tearing Indian Flag, Noida Police says investigating on

The Chinese smartphone maker, which has rapidly risen up the ranks to be counted among the top five smartphone makers in India, said its priority is the wellbeing of our employees and the community it services.

Chinese handset maker Oppo said it has sacked an employee who “discarded the Indian flag from the table” at its Noida Sector 63 plant.The company said in a statement on Wednesday, “Based on the recent incident and after thorough investigation with the concerned authorities, we have found that a worker discarded the Indian flag from the table during regular external material check.”

Referring to the incident which allegedly took place on Monday night, the company further said, “We have zero ​tolerance for such matters and have taken strict action in terminating the individual and continue working very closely with the authorities on the matter.”

A case has been registered and investigation is going on, Noida’s superintendent of police Dinesh Yadav told ET. “A Chinese person is named in the case… We are collecting evidence and getting the CCTV footage of the place,” he said.

Meanwhile, according to a news agency, the Chinese government on Wednesday said that it hopes India will “properly” resolve the issue at Oppo and safeguard its “legitimate rights” as per law.

"Company officials are in touch with the local police," Chinese foreign ministry’s spokesperson Lu Kang said at a media briefing in Beijing. “The Chinese government always asks its Chinese enterprises and staff overseas to abide by local law, regulations and respect local practices and customs,” he said.

Oppo said it regretted the incident, which, it said, in no way represents the company’s position. “Oppo has deep respect for India and its culture, and it continues to obey the applicable laws and regulations in India and will not tolerate any misconduct,” it said in the statement.The company said the incident did not impact manufacturing at the plant, where it makes smartphones for local consumption.

The incident triggered protests in front of the company’s Noida office, while some people took to social media to slam Oppo for its alleged anti-India actions. Some demanded strict action by the government against the company, while a few reached out to the newly appointed UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Twitter and asked him to look into the matter.

Hoisting and use (including misuse and insult) of the National Flag is regulated by the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950, the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, and the Flag Code of India.

Oppo, which has rapidly risen up the ranks to be counted among the top five smartphone makers in India, said its priority is the well-being of its employees and the community it serves.

The company, which entered the Indian market in early 2014, has become the fourth biggest player, with 8.6% market share, according to the latest data from analyst IDC. Having acquired sponsorship rights in the national cricket team for five years, in a Rs 1,079-crore deal, it plans to begin manufacturing at a more granular level besides entering into the online sales segment.

The company, which surpassed Apple and Samsung in China to become the No. 1 smartphone brand, has similar ambitions in India, where the market is led by the South Korean player Samsung. It is now planning a 1,000-acre industrial park with an investment of more than Rs 1,400 crore. Part of a long-term plan, operations in this park are expected to begin in the next two to three years.

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The Razr is one of few phones that still has a relevant design and high recall, on the same level as the Nokia 3310, many would say. The super-slim profile, flip design and chemically etched keypad stood out from the crowd quite easily. Even today, no one — not even Motorola — has been able to create something as iconic and desirable. It weighed a paltry 95 grams, had an anodized aluminum body, quad band support, dual colour displays, Bluetooth and a VGA camera.

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Nokia N-Gage

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Sony Ericsson T68i

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The T68i was the phone for the youth when it launched in 2002. It had a colour screen, Bluetooth, email, T9 predictive text, customisable ring tones and was amongst the first phones to support MMS. It was one of the most feature-rich phones you could buy at the time and this is a big deal considering that BlackBerry and Symbian phones were very popular. There was even a separate add-on camera dongle if you felt like capturing photos.

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Nokia 6600

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The 6600 was amongst the first breed of high-end Symbian smartphones and was counted as the most advanced smartphone at launch in 2003. It included support to install games, browsers, office suites, themes and various other third-party apps. It was also one of the first smartphones to support mp3 playback and had a memory card slot for storage expansion. Features included a 2.1-inch colour display, VGA camera, Bluetooth, infrared, a 5-way joystick and a 104Mhz processor.

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Sony P990

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When it comes to smartphones, the P990 from Sony Ericsson stands its ground as one the most unique yet handy designs. It was the only phone at the time to offer multiple modes of text input: via the touchscreen, with a stylus, a QWERTY keyboard and a standard number pad. With the flip closed you had a number keypad but it revealed a full QWERTY keyboard when opened. That’s why the 2.7-inch touchscreen was smaller than previous versions of the phone. It was also one of the first to offer WiFi, 3G, video calling support via front VGA camera and handwriting recognition. It ran the UIQ 3 interface based on Symbian and was powered by a 208Mhz processor.

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Motorola StarTac

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This one wears the crown of being the first clamshell phone in the world, way back in 1996. If you’ve seen the old Star Trek movies, you can easily see that the StarTac drew inspiration from the communicator device. It was available in CDMA and GSM variants and is counted as one of the first phones to help push widespread adoption of mobile phones. There have been successors to the StarTac, namely the StarTac 2004 and StarTac III (2007) that offered updated specs and features.

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Nokia 8110

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If you’ve seen the Matrix (movie), you’ll remember the curved slider Nokia phone used in multiple scenes. The phone used in the movie was the Nokia 8110 and it earned the nickname ‘Banana phone’ because of the unique curved slider. It had a green monochrome display and was also the first phones to come with an internal antenna. Even though the phone offered limited features, it won accolades for the stylish slider design. The successor to the phone was the Nokia 8850 that featured a similar stylish design and came with a blue monochrome display. The 8850 also had the added advantage of voice dialling support.

Jio’s Rs 2,399 annual plan offers 2GB per day data that costs effectively Rs 200 per month. It also offers unlimited voice and SMS. Airtel and Vodafone Idea’s Rs 2398 and Rs 2399 annual plans, on the other hand, offer 1.5GB per day data along with unlimited voice and SMS